Following President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, many students have questions and comments about what the next four years will look like for them and their communities.
“I’m paying attention to MAGA and that whole 900 page book (Project 2025), I’ve read summaries of it, and that kind of scares me,” sophomore Evelyn Parker said. “I haven’t been able to vote yet, but I’m scared that I won’t be able to because he said [we] won’t have to worry about voting again.”
Along with personal fears regarding the policies President Trump may enact, students also wonder how this presidency will impact the other people currently living in the U.S.
“If [Trump] actually changes the birthright citizenship [law], that is going to be bad, that’s literally the start of facism,” senior Jackson Spainhour said. “If a Mexican person is born here and they can just say, ‘Oh, that’s not actually an American citizen,’ that’s just terrible.”
Furthermore, in the last few days since Trump’s inauguration, many executive orders have been signed that arouse questions from students about how these changes will affect their future.
“We’ve left a lot of things, like the World Health Organization, and he’s also getting rid of the Department of Education,” Parker said. “I value education a lot, and I wish that everyone can have access to education, and the fact that he’s getting rid of it kind of hurts, considering it’s one of my moral beliefs.”
Additionally, the President’s vow to support Israel in the Israel-Hamas war causes students with personal ties in areas of active conflict to fear for their families.
“My grandmother actually had a small missile come about a couple miles away from her, from Israel,” senior Zain Saleh said. “She had to lift up all her windows and evacuate immediately. We will have to continue dealing with the after-effects of every time that America involves themselves in some war in the Middle East.”
As many moments from President Trump’s inauguration ceremony circulate online, students were able to formulate their own impressions of the events.
“I remember at the inauguration, there was Elon Musk’s Nazi salute [which] he said was the Roman Empire salute, [but] it looked pretty fascist to me,” senior Zain Saleh said. “Another thing that’s kind of crazy is a lot of the tech CEOs were there. I mean, now Elon Musk is part of the government efficiency [department].”
Observations like these led students to worry how the businessmen now involved in our political system will change the country moving forward.
“The one thing Biden said during his exit speech before the inauguration was talking about how he was afraid of an oligarchy coming in with all these millionaires and billionaires,” Saleh said. “It’s more secret now, but I feel that it will become a lot more present because of the fact that these billionaires are kind of just there now.”
In the face of uncertainty, students still have hopes, with many wondering why the American two-party system is so polarized, urging the president to focus on policies that will unite the nation.
“I think [political parties are] very black and white, and I would hope for it to become all gray,” junior Emerson Barber said. “I’m excited for the new generation and more people being able to vote and seeing if that changes anything.”
